Die Meistersinger

Composer: WAGNER, Richard
  • Wagner composed Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master Singers of Nuremberg) between 1862-67. It premiered on June 21, 1868, in Munich at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich. Hans von Bülow conducted the premiere.1
  • Wagner consulted several historical sources about the historical Hans Sachs and about medieval guilds in Nuremberg while he was writing the libretto for Die Meistersinger, including Geschichte der poetischen National-Literatur der Deutschen (History of the Poetic National Literature of the Germans, written 1835–42) by Georg Gottfried Gervinus.2
  • The plot of Die Meistersinger can be seen as a thinly-veiled allegory in support of Wagner’s 1860s polemical efforts in support of the “German spirit” in music. As such, some scholars have argued that there are anti-Semitic tones in the opera, particularly in the characterization of the antagonist Beckmesser.3
  • Synopsis from The Metropolitan Opera 

Sources

  1. “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner, Richard), IMSLP, accessed May 26, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Die_Meistersinger_von_N%C3%BCrnberg%2C_WWV_96_(Wagner%2C_Richard).
  2. Barry Millington, “Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Die,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed May 27, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000003512.
  3. Ibid.

Cut IDs

16970 17411 17412 17800 19446 20363 41327 42896 44858